Editorial: Public Policies and the Development of Electronic Communications Networks

On the basis that the development of new infrastructures and the modernization of the existing ones is in general a fundamental precondition to foster economic growth and social cohesion, the editorial focuses on the public policies that can effectively accompany the liberalization process in the Italian electronic communications sector. In particular, the author underlines the importance of a strategic plan for broadband diffusion, in order to solve both the coordination failure that typically arises in network markets among the stakeholders and the digital divide problem that penalizes the regions which mostly could benefit from innovative and advanced communications services.